I plan on picking up a copy of Ellroy's DESTINATION: MORGUE!
when he's in town later this month, because he's always a
hoot in person. I'll do it even though I think his style is
ill-suited to the short form, whether fiction or non-fiction.
CRIME WAVE, his last anthology, didn't bowl me over, although
I love the inscription he wrote ("Blood! Creep!"). I just
read his short story
"Torch Number," which leads off the Barnes & Noble
anthology PULP FICTIONS, and it seemed like the outline for a
much longer work. Which is how I feel about most of his short
stories.

As for the L.A. Quartet, I've read each book more than once
and have enjoyed them all. DAHLIA and WHITE JAZZ strike me as
the strongest, perhaps because they're written in the first
person. It's interesting that he ends the series with the
most lean and focused of the books, one that concentrates on
a single character while still bringing the Exley/Smith
storyline to a close. It always amazes me that people
complain about the film version of L.A. CONFIDENTIAL being
hard to follow, when only a fraction of the book was
used.

AMERICAN TABLOID is easily Ellroy's greatest work, but it
reminds me of what Ellroy himself has said about Thomas
Harris' accomplishment with RED DRAGON
-- he essentially invented and perfected a genre with one
book. THE COLD SIX THOUSAND seemed to be repeating many of
its predecessor's moves.

I've heard that HBO is planning on giving TABLOID the ANGELS
IN AMERICA treatment: a full six-hour miniseries. That would
be the only way to get a story with that kind of scope on
screen.

Anyone on the list read THE TICKET OUT by Helen Knode, aka
Mrs. Ellroy? I thought it was terrific, a great L.A. crime
story set against the backdrop of the movie business. She
shares a number of her husband's obsessions.

Vince Keenan

www.vincekeenan.com Pop culture, high and low, past and
present. One day at a time.

------------------------ Yahoo! Groups Sponsor
--------------------~--> Make a clean sweep of pop-up ads.
Yahoo! Companion Toolbar. Now with Pop-Up Blocker. Get it for
free!
http://us.click.yahoo.com/L5YrjA/eSIIAA/yQLSAA/kqIolB/TM
--------------------------------------------------------------------~->